


Improvement

by unwindmyself



Series: curious shapes shift in the dark [96]
Category: True Blood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Gen, Social Justice, agency and choices!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-08
Updated: 2015-08-08
Packaged: 2018-04-13 14:44:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4526004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwindmyself/pseuds/unwindmyself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nicole and Vanessa's work comes to a hopeful end, and the group reflects on small jobs that are so far well done.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Improvement

**Author's Note:**

> Part four, "Ticker Don't Tock."
> 
>  **Original Characters** : Vanessa Quinones, Isi Hill, Rhys Averill, seen Antoine Henriques, Noël Beringer, Evelyn Winter, Devi Avninder.

“Jessica, pick up the goddamn phone,” Nicole mutters as she and Vanessa huddle around her cell phone.

“It’ll be okay,” Vanessa says, “we can leave her a message, it’s not like there’s anything that can be done at eight o’clock on a Tuesday night.”

Nicole raises an eyebrow.  “Anything more than what we’ve already done, you mean,” she surmises.

They’re in their car a block away from the Hamby house, parked in the lot behind the church they’ve been masquerading at, and they can still see the lights and hear the sirens sounding from the cop cars parked all around.  It’s jarring, but hopefully it’s the good kind of jarring.

“I hope it’s going okay,” Vanessa murmurs.

 

* * *

 

“ _Fuck_ me,” Jessica shouts upon hearing her phone ring from across the room, from what sounds like somewhere inside one of the piles of clothes she’s been making to give away (mostly goody-goody stuff she rescued from her closet at Bill’s house, the sweet little sundresses that don’t really suit her anymore).

“What is it, darling?” Nora asks without looking up from her laptop.  Her stack of give-aways is already neatly folded and packed in a box by the door, and she’s sprawled out on her stomach responding to emails from prospective members of the new government.  (There’s a small chat window in one corner, occupied by her and Kaete - recently returned home to Tokyo doing go-between work for the new Authority and her employers the Yakanomo Corporation - and another one on top of it, occupied by her and Eric - currently doing a diplomatic tour through Europe to organize those branches of the vampire government - and she’s flipping back and forth with blithe ease, but those aren’t her primary focus.)

“Phone’s shit knows where in the pile of crap,” Jessica mumbles, speeding over to dive in and start searching.

“Do you want my help looking for it?” Nora asks.

Jessica shakes her head.  “Gonna be easier if I do it myself,” she says dismissively, tossing shirts and dresses behind her until she locates the offending object and hits talk.  “What’s up, Nic?”

“We need to talk,” Nicole near-shouts through the phone, loud enough that Nora doesn’t even have to strain to hear her.

 

* * *

 

They arrange to meet at Fangtasia, where Pam is currently overseeing Tara, Willa, and the fairies (even Sookie, since it’s her night off) doing fresh coats of paint on the walls.  Or something.  It seems like the kind of discussion that needs a wide audience, the way Nicole and Vanessa explain it.

Also summoned are Evelyn (as the third chancellor, the other vampires’ business is her business), Noël (as a Fangtasia employee, the other vampires’ business is his business), Amber (as the Authority’s lawyer, her perspective on this matter may be useful), Antoine and Isi (as Nicole and Vanessa’s friends and cohorts, their understanding of this mission is important), Luna (as a junior high teacher, she’s the best one of them to offer a perspective on adolescent girls), and Devi and Rhys (for reasons unknown, when the former found out about this endeavor she asked they be included in later steps).  Jessica and Nora are still the first ones to arrive, though, both of the looking tense as they let themselves into the building.

“Pam, s’there any reason you’re just sittin’ there like the queen of the world while the rest of us do your manual labor?” Sookie is calling over her shoulder as she touches up trim around one of the wall displays.

“Administrative privilege,” Pam coos, grinning slyly.  “Plus I’m shit at painting anything more substantial than a fingernail.”

“And I’m still better at her than doing that,” Tara mutters to Sookie with a smile.

“This ain’t hard, though,” Charlaine chirps. “Just up an’ down.”

“Manual labor, to borrow Sookie’s terminology, has never been my strong suit,” Pam replies cheerfully, not acknowledging the vague innuendo she could find in Charlaine’s description since she knows it couldn’t have been intentional.  “Y’all are doin’ great, though.  Looks spiffy.”

“Spiffy?” Willa echoes.  She’s currently standing on top of the back counter to dust shelves of alcohol (her choice of task, since she knew nobody else would want to and she likes being helpful) and her voice bounces off against the mirrored wall as if to emphasize her disdain.

“Don’t get nitpicky, baby sister,” Pam drawls.

“Excuse us for interrupting,” Nora shouts from the doorway.  “I believe there’s business to attend to?”

 

* * *

 

Everyone has shown up within the half-hour, and Nora calls Eric up on Skype. They push the loose tables together and sit all mixed up: Nicole and Vanessa at the head of the table, Jessica and Nora (and her laptop) and Adilyn and Devi and Sookie and Danika and Antoine and Isi down their right side, Luna and Braelyn and Willa and Noël and Evelyn and Rhys and Charlaine down their left, and Pam and Tara at the foot.  And, almost as if they’re trying to banish the possibility that Nicole and Vanessa bring bad news, there’s an unusual amount of smalltalk.

It all culminates in Braelyn grinning and saying to Luna, “That’s a pretty fancy ring you got there.”

Luna beams, looking happier than most of the crowd has ever seen her.  “Yeah, it is,” she says, surprisingly coy.  “Thanks!”

The word _ring_ catches attention here and there, most notably Sookie’s, who looks over with a giddy grin.  “Oh my god, Luna!” she cries.

Tara chimes in, “Did Sam finally…”

“He did,” Luna agrees, grinning.

“Did what?” Charlaine asks, because she’s being very polite and not eavesdropping.

“He proposed, weirdo,” Braelyn, who is doing no such thing as keeping to her own brain, calls down the table.

“Holy shit!” Danika shouts.  “Wow!  When?”

“Couple nights ago,” Luna says, sheepish now that all the attention is on her. “It wasn’t cheesy or anything, no candles or rose petals.  We just went for a walk after the bar closed and that was that.”

“Still!” Jessica exclaims.  “I’m really happy for you guys.”

“How excited is Emma?” Adilyn asks.

“Pretty excited,” Luna chuckles.  “And I’ll be more than happy to answer any further questions after the, ah, presentation.”  She nods respectfully at Nicole and Vanessa.

“Thanks,” Nicole smiles.  “So like I said on the phone, our con ended tonight.”

“What a relief,” Isi murmurs.

“For better or worse?” Pam asks, sounding like she cares more than she wants to.

“Well, we gave Eden a ride home from youth group tonight,” Vanessa says, “and I was pretty much ready to be a creep in the bushes just waiting for evidence of bullshit, but she invited me up to the door so she could grab me her illustrated Tolkien.”

“Aw,” Jessica says fondly.

“As not-luck would have it, the senior asshole was laying into his wife when we got up to the door,” Vanessa continues, and everyone shudders.  “Poor Eden, she got actually _embarrassed_ about it, apologizing for my having to witness it.  But I was already dialing 911.”

“Good,” Sookie says, because she’s only met Mr. Hamby the once, years ago, but she wants him to get what’s coming.  Maybe not Jessica offing him like she intended, but what’s coming.

“The cops showed up, from there it’s history,” Nicole says.  “Your mom was freaking out all…”

“Siding with him,” Jessica supplies grimly.  “Yeah, it figures.  She always did.  Man’s right as the head of the household, all that shit.”

“Well, what that means is your sister will almost certainly go into foster care,” Amber says.

“Actually,” Rhys interjects, “that’s sorta where I was hoping to come in?  My mom has been doing fostering for a while now, and I’m not sure how exactly to set up getting care of her, but maybe if, ah, Amber, if you could… figure out a legal… something?”

They get into a discussion about this, and as the table falls into seriously debating the issue and the degree to which they’ll be involved, Jessica looks at Nora and says, “I think I did somethin’ right.”

“Of course you did, love,” Nora smiles.


End file.
